CHAPTER XVI 



UNIVERSITY LIFE IN THE WEST - 1857-1864 



IT must be confessed that all was not plain sailing 

 in my new position. One difficulty arose from my 

 very youthful, not to say boyish, appearance. I was, 

 indeed, the youngest member of the faculty; but at 

 twenty-four years one has the right to be taken for a 

 man, and it was vexatious to be taken for a youth of 

 seventeen. At my first arrival in the university town 

 I noticed, as the train drew up to the station, a num 

 ber of students, evidently awaiting the coming of such 

 freshmen as might be eligible to the various fraternities ; 

 and, on landing, I was at once approached by a sophomore, 

 who asked if I was about to enter the university. For an 

 instant I was grievously abashed, but pulling myself to 

 gether, answered in a sort of affirmative way ; and at this 

 he became exceedingly courteous, taking pains to pilot me 

 to a hotel, giving me much excellent advice, and even in 

 sisting on carrying a considerable amount of my baggage. 

 Other members of fraternities joined us, all most cour 

 teous and kind, and the denouement came only at the 

 registration of my name in the hotel book, when they 

 recognized in me &quot;the new professor/ I must say to 

 their credit that, although they were for a time laughed 

 at throughout the university, they remained my warm 

 personal friends. 



But after I had discharged the duties of my professor 

 ship for a considerable period, this same difficulty existed. 

 On a shooting excursion, an old friend and myself came, 



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